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It's Black Friday and I'm so excited. I've been looking online and I'm absolutely buzzing. The offers on some electrical goods are amazing. Laptops with 20% off, TV sets down by as much as 25%, and all manner of computing accessories at giveaway prices. There are coffee machines with ? off and toasters at ½ price. I've seen hair care and shaving gift sets at ridiculously low prices, and scented candles and aromatic oils.

If only I needed, or even slightly wanted, a laptop, a TV set, a coffee machine, a toaster, computing accessories, scented candles or aromatic oils; if only I wasn't pissed off by all the emails from Amazon and Ebay and God knows who else warning me not to miss out on this Black Friday extravaganza; if only I weren't a grumpy, irascible old git who just wants to be left alone, what a fantastic day it would be.

Years ago, my doctor sent email for me to access my medical records on a portal. I didn't bother. I decide to buy a house and the realtor needs me to sign in to their portal to upload and share information. I have no choice but to comply. The home inspector uploaded his report to a portal that I must access, read, review and e-sign it's acceptance. Yesterday, the mortgage company needs me to create a profile on their portal to upload requested tax documents and e-sign their forms.

With every portal is a profile name and password. I've been writing this down on a sheet of paper. It's time to rewrite all of this and scan it in the event things get lost or misplaced when moving to the condo in December.

I somehow feel like a time traveler going through so many portals...

My reason is pretty simple. With months and months of on and off searching, I couldn't find something I really liked. My new agent sent a text that a few new listings came online. She wanted to see if I had time to look.
Of the ones I was interested in two to three weeks ago, they already received offers and sales are pending. It's the season. Northerners are here and units in the development I've been shopping at get scooped up quickly. I'm told many of the offers are cash so there's no wait for loan approval.
A long-time friend and coworker asked if he could join me in the search. He's got a friend already living in that community and is looking to help out a couple he knows who will be looking real soon.

One unit we saw looked nice as we walked in. The wall surrounding the kitchen was cut away and they created a breakfast counter at bar height. The only problem was the workmanship was rough. The bar top wasn't level and the patching on the wall was uneven. Skip that unit.

A few were overpriced simply because they had the original kitchens and asking the same as units with renovated kitchens.

One unit was in shambles... water was dripping from the a/c unit and a puddle on the laminate floor. There was a strong chemical smell and the agent said "Stop... don't go inside!" I had asked why and she said she recognized the smell... someone had died in the unit and they were treating it to remove to odor! Yeah, skip that one!

There were a few more to see and I was getting tired. But, I persisted. The realtor said another one came available and she got the 'go ahead' we can get in to see it. The outside of the building had been recently painted, the landscaping was the best around, the ugly 'fake tile' fascia was replaced with smooth panels. Less than 5 minutes of a walk-thru and all of us agreed it was the cleanest one we had seen in our search.

I left the agent with a 'this could be the one' and she called me back later to say other agents had shown the unit after we left. Was it a sales ploy? Possibly. But with the exception of the asking price, all the conditions had been met. This place was clean enough to move in tomorrow and not have to tear out the kitchen and baths to make it livable. I decided to make an offer and she came back with the owner's counter. I went up and they came down and we struck a deal.

I cut a check for a small deposit and signed an agreement to proceed with the purchase.

All week, I've been filling out documents and getting quotes on mortgage rates. I found one company I'm happy with and tomorrow, I'll meet with the home inspector to confirm that there aren't and hidden problems.

Now that I'm buying this condo I decided to stop looking for other ones.

Am in our local PC, terminally liberal Food Cooperative Cafe. The usual cheap guy, sucking up the free wifi and dollar endless coffees. The sort of place, so liberal (VERY liberal), where most of the clientel are either trust fund babies, or wanabees of same. The richer they are, the shabbier the glad rag threads. We've all seen these folks. We've heard them as well. At the local market elsewhere, for every day folks, frozen at sea flounder, on sale, can be had for under $5 USD per pound. The shishi beautiful people here complain endlessly about the prices, but are happy to fork over $12 for the same item. Rest of the products are priced to shock as well. And don't even ask about the huge naturopathic and homeopathic self medication sections. Just looked at a tiny bottle of "Rescue Energy"- "fatigue remedy" 20 ml. for $20. I've been trying forever, as a public health pilot demonstration project, to have this place use the test kitchen to put on teaching courses for the less fortunate, where they could learn to prepare wholesome, organic, relatively value dishes, based on diets in much of the non western world. Beans, rices, fruits, etc could be in the bulk bins at loss leader pricing. Most of these folks are receiving public assistence, and their family cultures have them eating costly, greasy, sugary empty calories, chock ful of artificial coloring. Wrapped in tons of paper and plastics. Salted until hard. Washed down with fructose laden soft drinks. I'll keep trying. Anyway, this Barrista here has been married since Oct. 6th. How do we ALL know. She never stops talking about it. At over 80 decibels. And, as an astute and critical people watcher, I notice that she is quite obese, and physically quite -------. Got me wondering about how often this gestalt of lady seem to talk so loudly. Attracting attention, in a counterphobic fashion. Is there a dynamic here? Perhaps same as for mouthy little guys, present company of course excepted.

Today was is a perfect day and its these days that make a man happy to be alive. Everything is just perfect...










Hope everyone - even the vinegar drinkers - have a fantabulous weekend.

I drove by a civic center and the tents with signs are already up. It's 93 degrees Fahrenheit on a sunny day with Thanksgiving a week away. Not easy to get into the Christmas spirit. The unusual thing is, the trees are sold in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood.
Christmas trees...

And no I don't mean on CS although some of us did and there was a real difference

How much does your name influence your life? When someone gives you a nickname, is it an annoyance or a relief? Lovers give each other pet names - a subconscious desire to change their loved one into a person who belongs only to them.

Slightly worrying when the new lover is called by the pet name given to the ex, mind. "Darling" is one thing, "Squooglemix" may be another.

If your name is, for example, Benjamin, you may introduce yourself as Benjamin, or Ben, or Benny, or Benjy, whichever is your 'happy' name.

When others add their own variations, especially when they've just met you, how irritating is that? It's like they don't even know you and already they're trying to change you. I don't even answer to the name Liz, not because I dislike the name, I simply assume the person is talking to someone else. It is absolutely not me.

I'd love to know if anyone has completely changed their name, even if only for a specific group of people, and noticed a real difference. Believers in numerology insist that changing your name - changing one letter can make the difference - can change your life. I have now been known in real life as Biff for over a year - I like it, and I have certainly changed in some ways, so it made me curious.

I don’t hide under the bed quaking, but at any one time there can be at least one thread of fear running through my head. Some come from the media and their faithful acolytes on social media. Some come from the experiences of others. Some just crop up randomly on their own. Some last seconds, some can build up until I have to talk myself down. The early hours of the morning is the time most of them drift up, although some are triggered by what I am doing, or unexpected noises.

Random examples

Will my brakes fail on this hill, will I crash through the barrier and bounce into the ravine 500 feet below?

Why hasn’t X (friend, relative, or person of interest), responded to my message / email / whatsapp? Dead? Sick? Pissed off with me and will never be in touch again?

Was that creak at 2 am a door opening, or the first sign the house is falling down? Will I survive its collapse, but be buried in the rubble to suffocate slowly in excruciating pain?

Will I be burgled? Mugged? Attacked? Beaten-up? Shot? Maimed? Killed? Acid thrown in my face?

Will I try to draw cash and find my bank account has been frozen or emptied? Will I lose my house, be unable to buy food, have to kill my pets before they starve to death so I can boil their bones to make up soup?

Will I be alone forever, die alone and be eaten by said pets because no-one even notices? Will I fall downstairs, break my neck, be unable to move until I starve to death, ditto, ditto? Or if I try to avoid being alone, will I fall in love, be conned, bankrupted, and left heartbroken? Will he murder me? Which would be worse?

I also sometimes have to stop myself thinking of floods, global freezing, solar flares taking out satellites, an international collapse of the power grid, hostile skirmishes, raids, nuclear war, the collapse of the economy, losing my job, the rise of the bullies, and being targeted because I am an outsider.

Most of the time, I’m completely relaxed but the fears – the fears seem to hiccup a little more often in these gloomy days as the media vultures teach us to wail their songs of terror at the moon. Will I eventually be after all hiding under the bed quaking?

Jump in any time and tell me to stop being silly, everything will be all right. I won’t believe you – in fact I’ll think you’re alarmingly naïve never ever to fear anything will ever touch your life – but jump in anyway.

I am self-diagnosing a need for food and maybe even a bubble-bath. I'm really not a basket-case. But man I can imagine up a world of troubles for myself sometimes.

The elderly man in his eighties, hurried to his doctor appointment at 8am. He wanted to finish quickly because he must be somewhere by nine. The doctor asked what the next appointment was. He proudly said that at 9am every morning he is at the hospital to eat breakfast with his wife. The doctor asked in what condition his wife was in. The man said that his wife had Alzheimers disease, and for the past 5 years she hasn't known who he is. The doctor was surprised and asked the man why he continues to go faithfully if she has no idea who he is....the old man replied, " because I still know who she is. "

? this my friends, is real love..... ?

?¨`*•?.•Pass it on!! Give someone else a reason to smile. ? ..•* ?

If I could vote on having Daylight Savings year round, it would be YES. Maybe you're okay with it getting dark at 6pm. I know I'm not.
I am however thinking about getting up at 5am and going to the schoolyard to get in a few model helicopter practice flights before the east coast gets out of bed. This time of the year we often have mornings where the winds are calm and by 9am it's 15-20mph.

Time to charge the batteries tonight as sunrise is at 6:30 Eastern Standard Time.